The Informances are an ongoing series of social artworks based on the structures of weaving. The first Informance was a participatory weaving and performance created in 2013 as a way to explore Herman Minkowski's model of the space/time of Special Relativity. In the Human Loom Informances participants use a set of soft, colorful bands to investigate their sense of proprioception and construct geometric shapes within a group setting. I developed the Human Luminescence Informances, which involve ultraviolet light and fluorescent colored bands, in order to help reprocess my own traumatic experiences. The Textagraph Informaces involve interacting with a set of giant hand woven potholders. All of the activities fuse together ideas of conceptual art, therapeutics, and play through a set of guided experiences. Participants explore their tactile and visual experiences while considering their interior thoughts and feelings. The experimental exercises help build connections between participants. The Informances are inspired by Francine Shapiro’s ground breaking trauma therapies of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing), Fluxus Art and the Brazilian Neo–concrete artists of the 1950s and ’60s who rejected pure forms of geometric abstraction for more sensorial methods of art making.
